• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.86 no.4
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• pp.251-263
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• 2023

The stethoscope has long been used for the examination of patients, but the importance of auscultation has declined due to its several limitations and the development of other diagnostic tools. However, auscultation is still recognized as a primary diagnostic device because it is non-invasive and provides valuable information in real-time. To supplement the limitations of existing stethoscopes, digital stethoscopes with machine learning (ML) algorithms have been developed. Thus, now we can record and share respiratory sounds and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted auscultation using ML algorithms distinguishes the type of sounds. Recently, the demands for remote care and non-face-to-face treatment diseases requiring isolation such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection increased. To address these problems, wireless and wearable stethoscopes are being developed with the advances in battery technology and integrated sensors. This review provides the history of the stethoscope and classification of respiratory sounds, describes ML algorithms, and introduces new auscultation methods based on AI-assisted analysis and wireless or wearable stethoscopes.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.11
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• pp.1605-1610
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• 2015

This study describes a new method to analyze phonocardiogram acquired from electronic stethoscope. The method uses the formant frequencies of linear prediction spectrum of the phonocardiogram and proposes a novel method for formant detection using the smoothing and the first and second derivatives. For this, stethoscope sounds are acquired in university hospital. The stethoscope signals are preprocessed and analyzed by the Burg algorithm, a kind of linear prediction analysis. Based on the linear prediction spectra, the formant frequencies are estimated. The proposed method has shown better performance in formant frequency detection than the conventional peak picking method.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38B no.9
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• pp.722-727
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• 2013

Medical treatment for animals is very difficult as the opinions of pets' masters take priority over treatment regardless of the seriousness of pets' disease or the needs of medical treatment. In case that a pet has heart disease, especially, it is difficult to get the direct answer from the pet's master on the decision or confirmation of treatment. For those reasons, it is almost impossible to predict and treat the pet before an emergency like the heart failure or an unexpected death happens. Using stethoscope can be the first diagnosis method to check the heart or any kinds of disease inside the body. High-tech equipments like CT, X-ray or Ultrasound can be used, but they can only be used as a second choice of diagnosis method since it requires professional skills and its high price. That's why stethoscope is still the best diagnostic tool when one makes the first diagnosis. In this study, we give a detailed account of digital diagnosis system in which veterinarians can analyze the sound from stethoscope without bringing it to their ears and make a diagnosis wherever they are. And we suggest a new concept of diagnosis system surrounding, which shows the relativeness of disease through Level Crossing Rate(LCR) and energy level from the stethoscope sound made in this system.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.239-245
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• 2004

Electrocardiogram and phonocardiogram acquired from ECG and stethoscope by a non-invasive method are bio-signals which laue been a great role in patients diagnosis and used extensively by doctors. And these are mainly used at the examination room or first-and room of hospital. When the patients are located at some places far away from hospital like a car, an airplane and a vessel under way, there are some difficulties in confirming their cardiac sound Especially the patient of ocean going vessel might not have a medical treatment from the professional doctor at times. In this paper, we developed the digital ECG and stethoscope system based on personal computer which can easily measure the patient's cardiac sound and ECG signal, and this might shorten the appearance of the remote maritime telemedicine.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.237-243
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• 2014

Heart sounds of patient's chest could be heard using an analog stethoscope. However, auscultation of a heart sound can be diagnosed differently by each doctor hearing it. Therefore the condition of each patient is determined by the subjective comments based on the hearing ability of a physician who has years of experience. In this paper, through analysis of heart sound and heart rate of the patient's condition, we will define minutely how to diagnose the condition of patient using a wireless digital stethoscope diagnostic system. And it is possible to perform an objective medical diagnosis by applying LCR (Level Crossing Rate) and to show the relationship of a disease using this system.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.41-47
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• 2008

This paper describes a wearable electro-stethoscope module for home-healthcare system. The module is consisted of a microphone, an instrumentation amplifier, a filter, a power amplifier etc. and is light and small. The phonogram signal from the module shows good performance. The test for the material and size of the sound collector of the chest piece is performed and the results is reflected on the prototype product. If the module is connected to wired or wireless communication network, so people can check their health without going hospital.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.527-534
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• 2014

The control system of human torso model and driving system of stethoscope for physical assessment trainer are developed. The detecting characteristics of circular pickup coil which is driven by square wave voltage signal with resonance frequency of LC circuits are investigated and it is confirmed that the pickup coil can detect the existence of chestpiece near the coil region. The control system of human torso model is composed of 8 channel pickup coils, Mp3 and Bluetooth module. The driving system of stethoscope is composed of chestpiece with contact switch and Bluetooth headset. The chestpiece detecting algorithm check the contact of chestpiece with human body model first and excite the pickup coil sequentially to find the location. The proposed system can be applied the physical assessment trainer.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.108-112
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• 2001

Heart sound contains rich information regarding the dynamics of the heart and the auscultation has been a first choice of routine procedures for diagnosis of the heart. However, heart sounds captured using a conventional stethoscope are not often loud or clear enough for doctors to precisely classify their characteristics, especially, under the noisy environments of the hospital. A simple auscultation device that removed shortcomings of the conventional stethoscope was constructed in the study. The device employed a polymer based adherent differential output sensor which was on contact with skin through a coupling medium and appropriated electronic circuits for signal amplification and conditioning An ordinary headphone is taken to hear the captured heart sounds and the volume can be adjusted to hear well. It is also possible that the device sends the captured heart sound signals to a PC where the signals are further processed and viualized.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• 2000.08a
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• pp.185-188
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• 2000

Heart sound contains rich information regarding the dynamics of the heart and the auscultation has been a first choice of routine procedures for diagnosis of the heart. However, heart sounds captured using a conventional stethoscope are not often loud or clear enough for doctors to precisely classify their characteristics, especially, under the noisy environments of the hospital. A simple auscultation device that removed shortcomings of the conventional stethoscope was constructed in the study. The device employed a polymer based adherent differential output sensor which was on contact with skin through a coupling medium and appropriated electronic circuits for signal amplification and conditioning. An ordinary headphone is taken to hear the captured heart sounds and the volume can be adjusted to hear well. It is also possible that the device sends the captured heart sound signals to a PC where the signals are further processed and viualized.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.158-165
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• 2009

Counselling between a patient and a doctor is crucial in telemedicine. In order for the doctor to examine the patient accurately, it needs an auscultation, at least. Currently, some video conference systems are implemented but it is hard to use them in the case of an cardiac disorder, because the patients suffering from cardiac disorder cannot be examined by a stethoscope over Internet. To solve this problem, the remote counselling service has to support real time transmission of the heart sound of the patient. In this paper, we present a remote counselling system with stethoscope. We also design and implement the system in order for health monitor to connect the patient with his attending physician for the environment of u-healthcare service. The proposed system supports a mobility for doctor and patient by exchanging IP addresses at an user authentication protocol. The system implemented by this paper can be used for cardiac patients in remote clinical setting in the future.